Coming to a Theatre Near You - Gems of Hong Kong Film Trailers

Description

A trailer means a promotional short clip produced/edited and shown prior to the release of the film, tempting prospective viewers by setting up a good hook. Cutting a film trailer is a major test of an editor’s abilities. This exhibition is one of the programmes of the Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival 2024, and is also Hong Kong’s first exhibition on the theme of film trailers. The exhibition consists of over one hundred trailers and teasers selected among the Archive’s collection starting from the 1940s and spanning the ages, from different genres, tracking the key trends in the development of the Hong Kong film trailers.

The exhibition displays trailers in six different categories, namely ‘The Earliest Trailers in the Archive’s Collection’, Drama and Realist Films, Musical Films, Comedy Films, Martial Arts and Action Films, Overseas Versions of Trailers, showing off the most exciting moments of those films, indicating the changes over the years in choice of essence, narrative methods and aesthetics. The exhibition also features some other marketing materials for the films, including posters, production stills, hand-written notes and handbills, so the attendees may experience the shift in marketing focus of that time.